|
291 |
a. |
a na khru- i
larücü-li vu-we |
| |
|
‘all my sons go to
school’ |
| |
|
|
|
|
b. |
a na kosü-khru-i
larücü-li vu-we |
| |
|
‘all my three sons
go to school’ |
|
| Contrast the above with |
| 292
|
a |
na ta-i
larücü-li vu-we |
| |
|
‘my children are going
to school’ |
|
where the speaker’s sons form a subset of a set of
children
|
| larübvü-khru-i |
‘[all] books’ |
| |
|
| polis-khru-i |
‘[all] police’ |
|
There are problems about ta being considered a
genuine plural marker in substantives, though, in the case
of pronouns, that it is a genuine number marker is beyond
question. Quite probably, ta is from o a
‘kind’, type, species’ ; in the speech of a majority of
speakers , the consonants in the suspected plural marker,
ta and in the word ota ‘kind’, type, species’
are different, the former being dental and the latter alveolar.
But in the speech of quite a few the two are not different.
There are other arguments for not considering ta
a genuine pluralizer : [a] it can occur with na the singular
marker. |
hinatahi 14
- ‘these-one kind but many in number’
|
[b]
|
Two of the number markers inMao are unilaterally dependent
on individuators, but ta is not and this may not be coincidental.
ta, however, can close relative participles converting
them into nouns, like [other] number markers, and if it
means only, ‘kind; type’ as in the pause.
|
larübvü1 ota2
kaxi3 ‘two3
types2 of book1
|
that ta has the meaning ‘out of an admixture of
objects’ with substantives and pronouns needs to be explained.
Further ta with khru can co-occur, there
being no material difference between, for instance, |
14
|
Not that this example is a pronoun.
-na and -ta do not felicitously co-occur
in a substantive. |
? ocü-nata-ţi
‘these houses - one type but many in number’
|
| 293
|
a. |
|
ocü ta-i |
‘the house’ or ‘the
house[s]’ |
|
|
|
and |
|
|
| 293
|
b. |
|
ocü ta-khru-i |
‘the houses’ |
|
|
|
or between |
|
|
| 294
|
a. |
|
larü ta -i
|
‘the book’ or ‘the
book[s]’ |
|
|
|
and |
|
|
| 294
|
b. |
|
larü ta-khru-i |
‘the books’ |
|
For some speakers the a example could mean either singular
number or plural number. If this is true, ta is
NOT a true pluralizer. |
Apart from the exclusive part of a whole - inclusive whole
difference which is a difference in referential meaning,
ta and -khru differ in morphotactics and
connotative meaning. ta can occur independently
of any bound morpheme while -khru is unilaterally
dependent either on the individuating clitics, like its
singular and dual congeners -na and -hi)
or, unlike -na and -hi),
on the agentive suffix -müi ‘person’. Thus,
|
| 295
|
a. |
ni1
pen ta2 pfo-lo3 |
|
take3
your1 pens1
|
|
|
*b |
ni1
pen-khru pfo-lo |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
{
hi }2 |
|
|
|
c |
ni1
pen-khru- |
{
i
} |
pfo-lo3
|
| |
|
|
{
sü } |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| 296
|
a. |
sübu-
o1
kajü2 |
ta2
shu-lo3 |
|
| |
|
plant3
the big2 |
plants1
|
|
|
|
*b |
sübu-o
kajü |
khru
shu-lo |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
{
hi }2 |
|
|
|
c |
sübu-o1kajü2
khru- |
{
i
} |
shu-lo3
|
| |
|
|
{
sü } |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
297 |
a. |
larübvü
ta1 a2 |
he3
bue4 |
|
|
|
*b |
larübvü-khru1 |
a2
he3 bue4
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
{
hi } 1 |
|
|
|
c |
larübvü-khru -
|
{
üi } |
a2
he3 bue4
|
| |
|
|
{
sü } |
|
| |
|
the
books1
|
are4
with3 me2
|
|
|
